Saka Light Cavalry

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Twelve Hours Till Heroes

Well in just twelve hours I will be packing the last items into the car ready to get off to Blackpool for Heroes, a Advanced Squad Leader Tournament that pulls around sixty players of the old Avalon Hill boardgame. Not everyone though joins in the tournament, they either play monster scenarios that will take four days to play or lots of smaller friendly games. Not that the tournament tends to be played in a less than friendly manor most ASL'ers are an amiable group with laughter coming from all sides.

I will look like this on Sunday!!

I am one of those none tournament types and plan on playing smaller catch games all weekend and given that my nephew is also doing the same as well as Martin or swearbox as he is known in our house I won't be short of opponents.

So as I packed the car earlier I considered the amount of kit I was loading and thought it might be worth listing here.

Over 100 boards, the playing area is made up of these 8x22" boards can be as little as half a board or upto and beyond five of them

Eight paper historical map sheets that cover such places as Stalingrad to Normandy, I have a lot more but only taking what I need.

Thirteen boxes of counters, or shall we say THOUSANDS of counters, all punched and none clipped.

About Fifty scenarios selected from over three thousand which made picking the scenarios fun in itself

Sixteen precision dice, these are Backgammon Professional dice costing about £5+ each but are almost perfectly square and balanced, ASL'ers are precious about such things.

Three sheets of plexi glass to put over the boards so the maps are fully flat (each sheet for different numbers of boards)

Devils Sperm to hold boards, plexi and overlays in place. Actually it's Museum Gel, specially made for holding exhibits in place and not leaving marks but my name is cooler

Custom made dice tower to add to the random effect of expensive dice

Every official overlay to change the board layouts (that's a lot)

Four Binders of Rules and lots of charts, boy does the game need rules!

Cotton thread for LOS checks (two spools as you never know)

Tweezers for getting counters out (Guns and Vehicles) again two pair

Pack of cards for off board artillery chits, yep that would be two packs (miniature)

Sniper Reminders as they are fun (and I hope to sell some as well as supply some for the winners)

Then I have to drive over to pick up James and he has to add the same again (well most items)

Have a great weekend Ian and say hi to everyone from me. I will make it back one year if I can remember how to play! I keep looking at the huge piles of ASL in my game room/attic and thinking it can't be long before I crack and start playing again!